YVR = Ballarat Vintage Recordings. This sequence contains several collections of vinyl recordings that include the ABC Sound Library, Kevin James Collection, Betty Pounder Collection, and Ron White Collection. They are stored at the Library’s Ballarat Offsite store. Here is a small sample from each.

The Betty Pounder Collection contains recordings that range from original musical cast albums to jazz music for dance class.

Betty Pounder was a renowned Australian dancer, choreographer and director. She joined theatrical firm J.C. Williamson’s as a dancer in 1941, and was later sent on the first of many trips to New York to study the choreography of The Pyjama Game. She became an expert in the styles of the great Broadway choreographers such as Fosse, Champion, Kidd, Robbins – who all knew and respected her talents. In the 1960s she created original choreography for Australian productions of Broadway musicals such as Camelot, Funny Girl and Half a Sixpence.

She also supervised the original Amsterdam production of the Broadway musical, Sweet Charity, and created original choreography for Australian musicals such as The Sentimental Bloke. In 1964 she created the Australian Ballet’s first truly modern dance piece, Jazz Spectrum, with music by Les Patching, designs by John Truscott, and Marilyn Jones and Garth Welch as principals.

These include the legendary Winifred Atwell on piano, Ron Shand and Pat McDonald – who portrayed the popular characters, Dorrie and Herb, on the long-running classic TV soap, Number 96, – on their own best-selling album, Truckin’ Songs by Nev Nicholls & his Country Playboys, a few albums by radio personality John Laws, and so much more.

The Kevin James Collection contains mainly motion picture soundtracks, including many rare items such as these two 1960s soundtracks for the action adventure, The Caper of the Golden Bulls, and romantic comedy, Kaleidoscope.